By Business Reporter- The Farai Maguwu-led Natural Resources lobby grouping, Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) said the government is in a massive lithium spree.
Maguw said this is happening on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s watch, warning that the country is exporting its future for a pittance while local communities are left in ruin.
In a statement, CNRG said up to 3,000 tons of lithium ore are being extracted and exported daily—amounting to an estimated 1.62 million tons in just the past 18 months—with little to no benefit accruing to the country or its citizens.
The watchdog criticised the government’s newly announced 2027 ban on raw lithium exports as “too little, too late,” warning that by then, Zimbabwe’s most strategic resource would be depleted and sold off to foreign companies—mostly Chinese—with little value addition.
“This timeline is too distant,” said CNRG. “At current extraction and export levels, the nation will have exported millions of tons of unprocessed lithium ore by then, enriching foreign capital while eroding our chances for sustainable economic development.”
Zimbabwe, home to Africa’s largest lithium reserves and one of the world’s most strategic sources for the mineral essential to electric vehicle and battery production, is now at risk of losing control over its future.
CNRG points to a combination of weak regulation, corruption, opaque deals, and porous borders that have enabled rampant smuggling into neighboring South Africa and Mozambique.
Worse still, affected communities in lithium-rich areas such as Goromonzi, Buhera, Mutoko, and Bikita have become what CNRG terms “sacrifice zones,” plagued by water shortages, forced displacements, environmental degradation, and social instability.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable, facing heightened risk of exploitation and economic insecurity.
While President Mnangagwa’s government continues to trumpet foreign direct investment in mining as a victory for development, CNRG paints a much darker picture—one in which elite networks, foreign multinationals, and politically connected cartels are plundering national resources with impunity.
“The continued extraction without robust beneficiation and a regulatory framework is contradictory to the African Mining Vision and Zimbabwe’s own beneficiation policy,” said CNRG, which called for an immediate moratorium on lithium exports, an audit of current mining operations, and urgent reforms to the Mines and Minerals Act.
Chinese companies dominate the lithium sector in Zimbabwe, raising additional concerns over labor rights abuses, unfair compensation practices, and environmental irresponsibility.
Despite widespread community resistance, most mining contracts are negotiated behind closed doors, often without consultation or environmental assessments.
“Zimbabwe must assert control over its critical minerals, ensure just transitions for its communities, and align its natural resource governance with the aspirations of its citizens—not the short-term interests of foreign buyers and elite networks,” the statement concludes.
If no decisive action is taken, Zimbabwe risks turning one of the world’s most promising lithium booms into yet another chapter of lost opportunity, exploitation, and environmental ruin.